Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems.
However, from the buyer's perspective, the inability of shoppers to touch, smell, taste or “try on” tangible goods before making an online purchase can be limiting. In an attempt for e-commerce vendors to reassure customers, the e-commerce vendors have implemented liberal return policies as well as providing in-store pick-up services.
The current art for electronic commerce utilizes static (and sometimes multiple) images to display products for sale. For certain well-understood products, such as books, this is sufficient. However, for products such as clothing, jewelry, home furnishings, etc. static images are inadequate. For example, it would be useful to see how clothing would appear on an image of one's self, to see how furnishings would look in one's home, etc. Currently e-commerce sites do not personalize the buying experience for these types of personal items. Even if a buyer knows the correct clothing size or room dimensions, seeing the clothing or furnishings outside of a familiar context does not complete the picture of how one would appear in the clothing or how the furnishings would synchronize with the decor of the home.
Thus, customers are not able to “experience” certain merchandise prior to purchasing on e-commerce web sites.